UPDATE
April 4, 2011, 12 p.m. EDT
Since publication, Martine, Gary and Samuel have evacuated to Dakar, Senegal. They are currently waiting for a visa from the French Embassy for their son, Samuel, and plan to spend the next few weeks in France with Martine’s father while teaching classes online. On Monday, April 4, the former president, Laurent Gbagbo, was captured.
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MENNONITE MISSION NETWORK — Mennonite Mission Network mission associates Gary Wittig and Martine Audéoud (Gilead Mennonite Church in Chesterville, Ohio) and their 3-year-old son, Samuel, have been hunkered down inside their Abidjan home as the violence between the two men who claim to be Ivory Coast’s president—longtime president Laurent Gbagbo, and United Nations-backed Alassane Ouattara—neared their home.
At one point, Wittig filmed video of machine gun fire right outside their fifth-story window.
In addition the families who live there, 18 other people, most without food, sought refuge from the violence in the building. Audéoud took the opportunity to feed them physically and spiritually. This is her story.
In her own words
Since the troubles started last Thursday (March 31) afternoon, some of the building’s janitors and guards were unable to go home. Others had brought their families in search of refuge as they live in areas where there is a very high level of insecurity. They didn’t have any food with them. Earlier in the week, I had bought about 50 pounds of rice, a box of canned sardines, and tomato paste, just in case we would need it. And that Thursday, I understood why I did that.
There are about 18 people in the building without food. In the morning, I make them coffee with lots of sugar, and cook rice with milk and sugar. In the evening, I serve rice and a sauce with sardines. Now I am the “mama” of the building. They also come to me for Ibuprofen as several of them have had malaria or fever.
On Sunday afternoon, I suggested that we have a prayer time as we couldn’t go to church. They were very happy to do that. Most of them are Christians, and a few Muslims. I told them to meet at 3 p.m. in a room that we knew was available. When I arrived, they were all sitting on the floor alongside the walls of that room, including some Muslim workers. We started worship with prayer and a few songs that we all knew. Then we read and commented on Romans 8:31-39. I had them repeat the verse several times so that it would sink in: "NOTHING can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ."
I felt that this gave them hope.
Then I asked them to give testimonies of how the Lord had already saved them in their lives. Two of them gave powerful testimonies that were encouraging to the group. Finally, we closed with a time of prayer and intercession for our families, our city, and our nation. I couldn’t understand all their prayers, as some of them were praying in their own language.
We felt united before the Lord.
After all was done, one of them asked to pray for me. That was very touching, too. Then we got up and greeted each other with a handshake as we usually do at the end of a church service. This time of worship helped us to refocus on the Lord’s love—a love that not even war can separate us from.
Wittig and Audéoud have lived in Ivory Coast for two years. (Audéoud worked for five years in the Ivory Coast in the 1990s.) Wittig teaches at the International Community School, and Audéoud is associate director of masters programs in holistic development at the Theological Seminary of the Christian Alliance.
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Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA, leads, mobilizes and equips the church to participate in holistic witness to Jesus Christ in a broken world. Media may contact Andrew Clouse at andrewc@mmnworld.net, 574-523-3024 or 866-866-2872, ext. 23024.
